Odin, the guardian angel in a Great Pyrenees’ body who saved the lives of his goat friends from the wine country fires in California.

So far, the asshole demon fires in Northern California’s wine country have killed over 40 people, eaten thousands of homes and have left 100,000 people homeless. Many are still missing. The situation is many layers of bad, but like with some tragedies, there is a ray of heroic happiness in the field of awful. And just like with the Mexico City earthquake, this ray of heroic happiness is a dog! If cats could read human words and read that last part, they could put out the wine country fires with their projectile barfing.

Odin is a one-and-a-half year old Great Pyrenees who lives with humans, cats, dogs and eight bottle-fed rescue goats on a property near Santa Rosa. Odin’s human Roland Tembo Hendel wrote on Facebook (via The Sacramento Bee) about having to flee their house from the fires on October 9th. A mandatory evacuation of Roland’s area was called at 10am, and just thirty minutes later, his nostrils took in the scent of smoke. Roland and his family saw the flames about 40 minutes later. They wrangled up their dogs and cats, but Odin refused to leave. You know that one do-gooder in disaster movies who screams at the others, “I am not leaving! You go! Save yourselves!” Odin is like that, only way more adorable and way less self-congratulatory.

Roland thinks that Odin didn’t want to leave the goats behind, and so the family made the decision to go without him. They cried thinking that they just said a forever goodbye to Odin and the goats (Note to you: Don’t even think about it. I’ve already called “Odin and The Goats” for my band name).

“I made a decision to leave him, and I doubt I could have made him come with us if I tried. We got out with our lives and what was in our pockets.

When we had found relative safety we cried for Odin and our goats. I was sure I had sentenced them to a horrific and agonizing death.”

The family was able to return to their property a few days later, and they thought they were going to find a charred scene of thick sadness. And they sort of did. Everything they owned was destroyed, but Odin, the goats and an orphaned deer were alive! Odin was busted down, weak and his fur had been singed by the flames from exploding propane tanks, but he hadn’t gone to Jesus. Even an orphaned deer knew that Odin was the one to stick with and stuck by him.

Odin has pretty much recovered, and a groomer cut out the singed parts of his coat for free. But Odin, his sister Tessa and the goats are now homeless and thirsty since their shelter and pumphouse burned down. So Roland started a campaign on YouCaring to raise money for a new shelter and pumphouse for the family’s pets. Roland’s $45,000 goal has already been met and is on its way to being doubled.

Here’s a little video of Odin sniffing his sister’s ass while frolicking with the goats he saved:

Roland also said that Odin, who was named after the Norse God, has lived up to his namesake and is their inspiration.

Odin re-defined ride-or-die by sticking with those goats, and he has also earned the right to never be yelled at for anything. If Odin shits on the rug in the future, Roland shouldn’t yell at him. Roland should apologize for not laying down a sheet of cashmere for him to caca on. If Odin steals a piece of pizza off of Roland’s plate on the dinner table, Roland shouldn’t yell at him. Roland should offer to cut the pizza slice up into easily digestible pieces. Odin earned that!

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